Classical Catholic Educationhttps://lionandox.com
Discussing classical Catholic education and the formation of Catholic liberally educated ladies and gentlemen.
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This School Choir May Have Just Made Historyhttps://lionandox.com/2018/12/09/this-school-choir-may-have-just-made-history/
https://lionandox.com/2018/12/09/this-school-choir-may-have-just-made-history/#commentsMon, 10 Dec 2018 03:36:26 +0000http://lionandox.com/?p=15281Continue reading →]]>In what might be a new world record, or perhaps simply a first of its kind choral accomplishment, the fifty-five voice Lyceum Choir sang back to back liturgies – one in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Burke, and the other in a Hierarchical Liturgy of the Byzantine Rite, celebrated by Bishop Milan Lach, S.J.!

Now I have been a choir director for about thirty years and have had numerous occasions where I have been asked to prepare choirs for this or that solemn liturgy, at which this or that Bishop would be celebrating. Every such occasion is exciting for a choir, and of course these opportunities are events for which ordinarily a choir will attempt to do its very best. Of course cathedral and basilica choirs are habituated to such events. That is why many of them consist of both volunteer and professional choristers among their ranks.

The students of The Lyceum Choir know that they are primarily singing ad maiorem Dei gloriam, but it’s not every day that one gets to sing with a Cardinal in the morning and a Bishop in the afternoon!

As it was the feast of The Immaculate Conception, and as Cardinal Burke had been invited to celebrate the Mass at the gorgeous Immaculate Conception Church in Cleveland, we knew we had to meet such an occasion with every ounce of preparation we could muster. After all, this was a visit by the highest ranking Church prelate to the church since its cornerstone was laid in 1878!

The students arrived an hour early to warm up for the 10 AM Mass in high spirits. Although the church itself is fairly large, its architect did not envision both a pipe organ and a fifty-five voice choir in the loft. Consequently we made the decision to locate the choir in the last four rows at the back of the church. Given that the church was packed, this was no easy feat.

Now some of you might be thinking,

Ok…that’s pretty impressive….. but any school choir might be able to sing a Pontifical High Latin Mass with preparation. What’s so difficult about singing the Missa de Angelis along with a couple easy motets?

Well, just take a look at this program:

Introit – Gaudens Gaudebo (Gregorian Propers- in full!)

Kyrie from the Missa Brevis – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Gloria – Missa Brevis – Palestrina

Graduale – Benedicta es tu, Virgo Maria (Gregorian Propers)

Alleluia – Tota Pulchra es (Gregorian Propers)

Credo III (Gregorian)

Offertory- Ave Maria (Gregorian Propers)

Offertory Motet – Alma Redemptoris – Palestrina

Sanctus – Missa Brevis – Palestrina

Agnus Dei – Missa Brevis – Palestrina

Communion- Gloriosa dicta sunt de te– (Gregorian Propers)

Communion Motets

Dixit Maria – Hans Leo Hassler

Rorate Coeli – Christopher Tye

Ave Maria – Jacob Arcadelt

Sicut Cervus – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

And then, to top things off, the Mass ended with a glorious procession of the Blessed Sacrament complete with the regular congregational settings of O Salutaris, Pange Lingua, Holy God, and Immaculate Mary.

After finishing this glorious experience which lasted for about two and half hours, the students quickly boarded a bus which transported them to St. Stephen’s Byzantine Catholic Church in nearby Euclid, Ohio. Timing was of the essence given that the students were to provide the choir for the Solemn Profession at 1:30 PM for a nun from Christ the Bridegroom Monastery.

Now, it goes without saying that a choir cannot sing well at any liturgical function unless it is familiar with the rhythms and movements and traditions that are peculiar to it. Successfully providing the liturgical music for any liturgical event or service requires a choir that is able to cooperate and has the requisite skill to exercise flexibility so as to adapt to the various tones, pacing, and idiosyncrasy of this or that celebrant (or congregation).

It is not any choir that can sing a full polyphonic Palestrina Mass and then seamlessly make the transition from west to east- singing the music for the incensation of the church and the Antiphons and Troparia and Kontakia and Trisagion and Prokeimenon and Anaphora – not to mention the many other regular polyphonic prayers like The Creed and the Lord’s Prayer.

The young are especially adapted for making such swift transitions without blinking!

the Church must breathe with her two lungs! In the first millennium of the history of Christianity, this expression refers primarily to the relationship between Byzantium and Rome… we understand clearly that the vision of the full communion to be sought is that of unity in legitimate diversity.

Now although Pope John Paul II meant to signify the Church as a whole, as opposed to individual members of the Church when he said “the Church must breathe with both lungs,” I still think that he would have been very proud of the fifty-five students who sang a Solemn Pontifical High Latin Mass in the Morning and a Hierarchical Liturgy of the Byzantine Rite that very afternoon.

Could there be a more effective response to Saint John Paul II’s encyclical? Singing certainly requires lungs! And anyone who is familiar with the harmonies of the east will agree that if the western music of Palestrina is produced from one lung, it certainly might seem that the music of the Byzantine Church is produced from quite another lung!

These students certainly sang from both lungs that day. They sang from 9 AM to nearly 4 PM!

And because of their youth, because of their reverence, because of their goodwill and because of their beautiful voices, they enhanced the beauty of two very significant liturgical events. They also inspired the many hundreds of people who came to witness these events.

Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

What are we to make of all of this? Will the sun really be darkened? The moon will not give light and the stars will fall from the sky?

Now, I am not certain just what to say from an astronomical standpoint, except that I suppose there might be a time when the sun will burn itself out. Then, of course, the moon will no longer be lit up. But as far as stars falling from the sky, I am not certain just what that could mean physically speaking. My present scientifically naive understanding is that the fixed stars are in their positions not having any sort of down or up. They do not really have anywhere to fall? Maybe I am wrong.

I think what has been said may be better understood to apply to the Church. For the Church is the sun, the moon, and the stars, to whom it was said, Fair as the moon, elect as the sun. And she will then not be seen for the unbounded rage of the persecutors.

Now, as interesting as this interpretation is, I do not find it very consoling. I figure the Sun will not burn out in my life time. As a matter of fact, according to at least one article the sun will still be around for another five billion years! Phew!

St. Augustine is saying that the Church is sometimes referred to as the Sun and the Moon, as we read in the Song of Solomon,

Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?

And if someone were to suggest that the Church is currently “not seen” I think I would have to agree. That is to say, the Church’s doctrines, Her sacraments, and Her timeless wisdom seems to be quite obscured at the moment. At least judging by the number of empty pews which I inadvertently count every Sunday when I should be praying.

St. Ambrose agrees that the Church is figured in this passage. He says,

While many also fall away from religion, clear faith will be obscured by the cloud of unbelief, for to me that Sun of righteousness is either diminished or increased according to my faith;

This is what is meant by “the sun shall be darkened.” Ambrose continues,

and as the moon in its monthly wanings, or when it is opposite the sun by the interposition of the earth, suffers eclipse, so also the holy Church when the sins of the flesh oppose the heavenly light, cannot borrow the brightness of divine light from Christ’s rays. For in persecutions, the love of this world generally shuts out the light of the divine Sun;

And finally he says,

the stars also fall, that is, men who shine in glory fall when the bitterness of persecution waxes sharp and prevails. And this must be until the multitude of the Church be gathered in, for thus are the good tried and the weak made manifest.

Thus the earth is a figure of the flesh (and “worldly” desires) which block the rays of Divine light. And the stars that fall are the saints or the men “who shine in glory” even while on earth, but fall during times of persecution.

Happy Advent!

]]>https://lionandox.com/2018/12/01/the-sun-shall-be-darkened-first-sunday-of-advent/feed/1marklangleyRelated imageImage result for second coming of christ dreadfulImage result for second coming of ChristImage result for stars fallingST AMBROSECan a True American Celebrate Christ the King Sunday?https://lionandox.com/2018/11/19/can-a-true-american-celebrate-christ-the-king-sunday/
https://lionandox.com/2018/11/19/can-a-true-american-celebrate-christ-the-king-sunday/#commentsTue, 20 Nov 2018 03:39:58 +0000http://lionandox.com/?p=15276Continue reading →]]>Can we all just admit it? The chief disadvantage of living in the “greatest nation on God’s green earth” is that we Americans find it just a little tougher to sympathize with and even celebrate Monarchy.

I mean, wouldn’t we rather celebrate “Christ the President of the Universe?” This idea of Christ as the king is practically a frontal assault on all of our inclinations as patriotic Americans!

In other words, if we all know that the democratic republican form of government under which we live is the most suitable government for mankind, doesn’t this realization dampen our enthusiasm a wee bit for celebrating monarchy and kingship- and therefore, all that is entailed by theme of the last Sunday of the liturgical year?

The fact that Pope Pius XI added this feast to the Roman calendar fairly recently (1925) makes me think that he knew it would come as a little bit of a shock to free thinking and independent Americans. I am sure he meant to give a slap in the face to the rising and militant secularism of the time – and certainly he was thinking about the aggressive and violent assault on religious liberty in Mexico. Is there a greater antithesis to the mind of the secularist than the concept of Christ as the king of the universe?

As a High-School teacher, it often befalls my lot to read Herodotus,’ The Histories, his legendary and not so succinct account of the “Persian War.” Herodotus details the rise and “worldwide” dominance of Persia, until it was thwarted in its inexorable western expansion by a relatively small group of democratic free thinking Greeks, at such places as Marathon and Thermopylae.

If there is a lesson to be learned from Herodotus, it is certainly this: As mighty as the Persian monarchs were, as massive as their armies grew, as multitudinous as were their servile and oftentimes sycophantic minions, they were nonetheless no match for the wits and bravery of a free thinking democratic people. For heaven’s sake, Athens was the very cradle of democracy and yet according to Herodotus, Athens very nearly single-handedly put a stop to the seemingly all-powerful and haughty King Xerxes!

One cannot read Herodotus without feeling a twitch of exultation about the wit and resourcefulness and spunk that seems to arise when men think for themselves and agree by mutual compact to band together in a great cause. One cannot refrain from thinking that there is something beautiful about men who rule themselves democratically!

And so how is an American Catholic supposed to feel this Sunday? The very fabric of our society, our notions of law and reason and science and culture were bequeathed to us by the Greeks. Americans pride themselves on self direction. If I remember correctly our War of Independence was directed against overthrowing the rule of a monarch.

And although the French were exceedingly helpful to us in our efforts, we have never been quite comfortable with them either for all of their aristocratic leanings. Many Americans like Thomas Jefferson were at first quite sympathetic about the overthrow of the Catholic monarchy in France during their so-called “Revolution.”

But again here we are, patriotic Americans confronted with celebrating the very thing, the defeat of which, provided a foundation for the American Republic- Monarchy!

As a church organist and the “official four hymn selector” for my parish, I will choose the following hymns:

Alleluia Sing To Jesus, His The Scepter His The Throne!

Crown Him With Many Crowns!

The King of Love My Shepherd Is.

To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King.

I like these hymns and given the fact that I am not singing the “Gregorian Propers” as I think I should be, these hymns are the next best thing. But notice the unfamiliar-to-Americans trappings of monarchy!

We have sceptres!

And (gasp!) Crowns!

And thrones!

Oh the horror! How can Catholics celebrate such things if Monarchy is an unsuitable form of government?

I wonder if many Christians simply take in “Christ the King of the Universe” Sunday like many other things that the Faith proposes. After all the Church proposes all sorts of things for our belief which are simply not consonant with sound science and ordinary reason. So it’s perhaps best not to think about such things.

As if to say, perhaps there is a very real divide between faith and reason. When one goes to church or to worship, it is best to simply hang up one’s coat and hat and intellect on the rack outside the church to be donned only upon exit.

Could it be that Kingship or Monarchy is indeed the fitting rule for mankind? This is not to say that this or that specific group of humanity should adopt a monarchical form of rule immediately. This is not to say that the American representative form of government by which we govern ourselves is not in fact the very best form of government available to us right now on our own time and place. Perhaps that form of rule is best relative to the manners customs and mores of this or that people.

But if one had to choose the form of government that is simply best without qualification, what would one choose? What form of government did God Himself choose to rule his universe? Did he choose the best government? Is it relevant to our eternal happiness that He is a monarch? I guess the answer is obvious.

It is a fundamental rule of Christian living that the habits and affections that we develop on earth are significant in disposing our hearts towards heaven. As St. Thomas Aquinas was fond of saying “Grace perfects nature.” We are disposed towards the things of grace by the things of nature. Faith and reason are not opposed but rather the more we strive to reason aright, the more we provide an intellectual disposition for the gift of God’s grace.

That Christ is a monarch is a significant part of our faith. Insofar as we might identify various Christian monarchs that did not overstep their authority or abuse their power, perhaps every Christian might gather some lessons concerning how we ought to think, behave and feel in the presence of a monarch? Perhaps there are minor and major points of reverence and courtly behavior that are lost on the disciples of Democracy? Most importantly, perhaps there is a lesson to be learned about humbly and immediately adapting our will to that of his sovereign majesty, Christ the King; deference to a king is something a little more difficult for we rugged American individualists, who are accustomed to think it always right to have a say in our own affairs.

Notwithstanding any obstacles in our path ascribable to our own political custom, I suspect that our celebration of Christ The King of the Universe this weekend will strike most Christians with the fitting annual realization that “Yes! Christ is the King! Christ should be enthroned in the very center and principal place in our hearts. Every Christian will undoubtedly be struck with the fitting thought that inasmuch as we have earthly concerns and earthly rulers, nonetheless Christ is ultimately in charge and we are to do nothing except it be his will!

Viva Christo Rey!

]]>https://lionandox.com/2018/11/19/can-a-true-american-celebrate-christ-the-king-sunday/feed/4marklangleyImage result for christ the kingImage result for mexico cristero miguel proImage result for xerxesImage result for George the thirdImage result for sceptreImage result for crown renaissanceImage result for throneImage result for church vestibule coat rackImage result for parliamentImage result for Benjamin franklin coonskin hat in french courtIt’s Never Too Late to Become Educatedhttps://lionandox.com/2018/11/17/its-never-too-late-to-become-educated/
https://lionandox.com/2018/11/17/its-never-too-late-to-become-educated/#commentsSun, 18 Nov 2018 03:19:25 +0000http://lionandox.com/?p=15266Continue reading →]]>Every serious discussion about Catholic Liberal Education (which I call “Catholic Classical Education” sheerly for marketing purposes) must perforce dwell at considerable length from time to time on Homer and his works- especially the Iliad and the Odyssey.

And this is because, as someone said long ago,

Homer is the teacher of Greece.

Now let’s indulge ourselves in a little syllogism with a large conclusion.

Homer is the teacher of Greece.

Greece is the teacher of the world, that is Greece is the teacher of all.

Therefore Homer is the teacher of all!

Now isn’t that a large conclusion? As a matter of fact it is so large I think it deserves to be said in Latin. And fortunately, I think I can just manage this myself!

Homerus Omnes Docuit!

Sometimes one meets a person who has awakened late to the realization about education. Suddenly he realizes that attaining a liberal education is not really an option but is, rather, an obligation that human nature places on each person. This is what is known as an intellectual awakening.

And this is of course a wonderful thing to see in anybody! It is never too late to realize this. It’s never too late to start a liberal education!

Dum vita est spes est!

Although admittedly those who realize this earlier have a small head start. Nonetheless, like the parable of the workers in the vineyard, there are many stories of those who have commenced their own liberal education at the “eleventh hour,” so to speak, for whom the rewards of wisdom have equaled or even surpassed those who may had started in their childhoods.

Now, I am not endorsing death- bed conversions to liberal education. My own livelihood as a teacher at a classical school depends on a fairly early realization that all children should have a liberal education. But in a spirit of snootiness, I submit the parable as a consolation for all of you “Liberal Education Johnny Come Latelys” just to bolster your spirits.

Nonetheless, the question arises for the person who suddenly realizes,

“I have completed my education, but miserabile dictu! I am not educated!”

This person is blessed. What humility! I have even heard stories of highly degreed people that make this realization. It may not be true, but I like to think that Robert Maynard Hutchins was such a person, perhaps through contact with people like Mortimer Adler.

There are many such people, and inevitably among the first thing they think to themselves is,

I need to start reading! But where shall I begin?!?

To which we reply with confident placidity:

Homer, of course!

As a matter of fact, I think I would just go ahead and put the Chesterton down. One would not want to go to one’s grave having read Chesterton and not Homer. What a spectacle that would be. Imagine having to explain that one to St. Peter!

As if to make the very point that I am making, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI went ahead and beatified John Henry Cardinal Newman in 2010!

Now you may be asking yourself, “What does the beatification of Newman have to do with reading Homer?”

Well, the connection is fairly plain for anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear. Listen to Newman (whom I think we should just go ahead and call “the Apostle of Liberal Education”),

The great poet (Homer) remained unknown for some centuries,—that is, unknown to what we call fame. His verses were cherished by his countrymen, they might be the secret delight of thousands, but they were not collected into a volume, nor viewed as a whole, nor made a subject of criticism. At length an Athenian Prince took upon him the task of gathering together the scattered fragments of a genius which had not aspired to immortality, of reducing them to writing, and of fitting them to be the text-book of ancient education. Henceforth the vagrant ballad-singer, as he might be thought, was submitted, to his surprise, to a sort of literary canonization, and was invested with the office of forming the young mind of Greece to noble thoughts and bold deeds. To be read in Homer soon became the education of a gentleman; and a rule, recognized in her free age, remained as a tradition even in the times of her degradation. Xenophon introduces to us a youth who knew both Iliad and Odyssey by heart; Dio witnesses that they were some of the first books put into the hands of boys; and Horace decided that they taught the science of life better than Stoic or Academic. Alexander the Great nourished his imagination by the scenes of the Iliad.

I tell my students (at the prestigious little school at which I am privileged to teach) that a liberal education used to consist in having simply read the Odyssey and the Iliad. That alone would substantiate legitimate grounds for the conferral of a diploma.

Now, over time, Newman explains, education became a little more complicated.

As time went on, other poets were associated with Homer in the work of education, such as Hesiod and the Tragedians. The majestic lessons concerning duty and religion, justice and providence, which occur in Æschylus and Sophocles, belong to a higher school than that of Homer; and the verses of Euripides, even in his lifetime, were so familiar to Athenian lips and so dear to foreign ears, that, as is reported, the captives of Syracuse gained their freedom at the price of reciting them to their conquerors.

I love that! The Syracusans evidently understood what liberal education really is. If one is not liberally educated then one is a slave of sorts– and might as well be in chains! As soon as one learns to recite Homer by heart, however, certainly such a one is a slave no longer but a free man; a liberally educated lady or gentleman and therefore must be set free at once!

The father of the Atomic Theory, Democritus, knew why an education in Homer might constitute a complete liberal education.

“Homer, obtaining by fate a divine nature, built a cosmos of all kinds of verse.”

One cannot be liberally educated unless one has some education about the universe in all of its parts. Unfortunately, there are many who think that being educated in one thing or another, limiting their intellectual formation to this or that specialty, is an appropriate pursuit for a human being. Psssshawwww! Foooooo!

These ones would seemingly prefer the kind of life that Polyphemus the Cyclops enjoyed, if one can say “enjoyed.”

Those who have one eye have no depth perception, and therefore live life on the surface- and a very narrow surface at that.

In defense of Polyphemus, my understanding is that he was born with one eye, whereas those who narrow their vision by premature specialization appear to pluck an eye out voluntarily!

But Homer wrote a cosmos in verse, and in reading Homer one is educated in the cosmos. That is to say, in reading Homer one is educated in every aspect of life and the world; he is educated in ethics, political science, the philosophy of nature, worship, the fine arts, the soul, the family, friendship, marriage, architecture, and much, much more….even cuisine!

If you doubt me, there is only one solution.

Read yourselves some Homer!

]]>https://lionandox.com/2018/11/17/its-never-too-late-to-become-educated/feed/1marklangleyImage result for homerImage result for dum vita est spes estImage result for democritusImage result for polyphemosImage result for cyclops polyphemusInsipid Church Music: A Role in the Crisis?https://lionandox.com/2018/09/19/insipid-church-music-a-role-in-the-crisis/
https://lionandox.com/2018/09/19/insipid-church-music-a-role-in-the-crisis/#commentsThu, 20 Sep 2018 02:46:52 +0000http://lionandox.com/?p=15221Continue reading →]]>As a liturgical musician I can’t help wondering to what extent the insipid and vapid music prevalent in our churches has contributed to the present crisis.

That there is more than a mere coincidental connection between the squishy feel-good liturgical music and the lax and casual atmosphere in our churches is clear to me- especially when I reflect upon what the great Philosopher Socrates had to say about the power of music.

musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated noble, or of him who is ill-educated ignoble.

It was a common saying among the Greeks that,

Like produces like

Does wimpy music produce wimpy character? Does squishy liturgical music produce squishy feelings and squishy prayer?

Much has been written about the scourge of contemporary liturgical music. Much has been said already about how the Churches’ treasury of sacred music has simply been abandoned; Gregorian chant and the sacred polyphony handed down for centuries was jettisoned and replaced with music remarkably ‘soft’ and sentimental by contrast. I think thoughtful people may now have legitimate suspicions that the prevalent music in our churches is not wholly unconnected with the present onslaught of scandal that is rocking the Church from top to bottom.

Or at least we might suspect that the current music in our churches is something of a fitting soundtrack to the crisis.

Now, as a liturgical musician, I might hold a somewhat exaggerated view about the importance of music. Nonetheless, shouldn’t we all be eager to find the causes that brought us to where we are? Undoubtedly, the causes are manifold.

Although it is tempting to explain every problem by a single cause, we might heed the warning of the ancient philosopher Empedocles

when he was critical of those in his own day who attempted to explain the natural world in terms of one cause, saying,

For narrow are the means spread throughout the limbs and many are the miseries that burst in and blunt the thoughts. And having seen only a small part of life during their lives… they boast of having found the whole.

Having grasped one part of life we tend to think that perhaps we have grasped the whole.

And so, I will not claim that the sexual scandals in the Catholic church were caused solely by the vacuous and insipid church music that we have all been subjected to over the last fifty or so years. We have not just been subjected to this music, but we have been saturated and immersed in it. It fills our ears and imaginations and is seemingly inescapable. The sheer habituation to this music can’t help but to have affected and even shaped our affections and tastes as much as we try to resist. We find ourselves inadvertently humming it!

It would be a serious mistake to ignore liturgical music as a contributing cause to the scandal.

After all, as soon as the dust settles and justice is carried out, as soon as restitution is made, as soon as light expels the darkness and truth prevails…as soon as all this has happened, then we are surely going to make certain that it never happens again to whatever extent possible.

In this way, I suppose, we will make use of the saying (despite its dubious pedigree) “never let a good crisis go to waste,” difficult as it is to see anything good in the current crisis.

And so let’s gather our thoughts on the matter and reflect on the various causes, great and small, that have possibly contributed to what some are calling the “greatest crisis” to date in the American Church. Our (non exhaustive) list of contributing causes will include things like,

The sexual revolution and breakdown of decency in our society especially during the later half of the twentieth century.

The wholesale abandonment by Catholic colleges and universities of authentic Catholic education and Catholic identity as became manifest in the Land O’ lakes Conference

Lack of oversight by seminary admissions directors and vocation masters that allowed a homosexual subculture to thrive in seminaries.

The loss of faith and belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament by seemingly even those in the church’s hierarchy.

The resistance to and rejection of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae

The liturgical confusion and collapse of monastic orders that ensued after the Second Vatican Council.

The psychological toll of the abortion and contraceptive culture.

The stepped- up attack on the priesthood by the devil.

The world and the flesh.

But somewhere on this list – and let it not be last- we ought to place as a serious and real cause of the sexual crisis in the church the insipid, trite, uninspired and tedious music that has been forced on Catholics from coast to coast.

If the causes for the sexual scandal in the church that I have listed are more important, and if there are others that I have missed that are even more significant, at least I can say that the liturgical music that we have all been subjected to for most of our lives has provided the perfect atmosphere for the scandal- music that is all at once self-centered and ego-centric, saccharine, narcissistic, enervating, banal and silly.

From Here I am Lord to Let There be Peace on Earth, from Eagles Wings to Fly Like a Bird, from Be Not Afraid to Sing a New Song, the music in our churches is universally destructive (for the top ten worst songs see here).

Now I know what you are thinking. You are thinking,

Hey wait a second, I kinda like some of these songs.

I know, I know. So do I. But this should not surprise any of us. We have already stipulated that music is inexorably powerful in its influence. The sheer repetition and enforced familiarity with it is irresistible to the ordinary ear. That’s the whole point that Homer was making to us (nearly three thousand years ago!) in his description of the irresistible singing of the Sirens. All of Odysseus’ men would have perished had they not plugged their ears with beeswax. Odysseus himself was only able to withstand it because his men tied him to the mast.

In other words, as sad as it is, and I hate to say it, we are all guilty of contributing to the present crisis in so far as we have failed to plug our ears against the insipid liturgical music of our day. I am reminded of the wit who changed Captain Oliver Hazard Perry’s famous line, “We have met the enemy and they are ours!” to “We have met the enemy and he is us!”

Because we ourselves truly are contributing to the sexual crisis in the Catholic church by our inactivity and cooperation with the background music of this crisis.

Oh, c’mon!

you say,

That is ridiculous!

You only say that because you did not take Plato seriously in his Republic, whereas I did!

In other words, music has a tremendous impact on the soul.

Now imagine for moment a typical Catholic congregation who attend a typical mainstream Catholic parish Sunday after Sunday. Does the liturgical music that they hear week in and week out have an impact on their souls?

The answer is obvious.

]]>https://lionandox.com/2018/09/19/insipid-church-music-a-role-in-the-crisis/feed/54marklangleyImage result for cheesy musicImage result for kumbayaImage result for empedoclesImage result for theodore hesburghImage result for humanae vitaeImage result for sirens homerImage result for oliver hazard perryWhat Teachers Do During the Summer: Liberal Education Works Vol. 19https://lionandox.com/2018/08/04/what-teachers-do-during-the-summer/
https://lionandox.com/2018/08/04/what-teachers-do-during-the-summer/#commentsSat, 04 Aug 2018 18:47:55 +0000http://lionandox.com/?p=15169Continue reading →]]>Ahhhh Summer 2018!

Another opportunity to manifest the diversity of powers that lie latent in the liberally educated soul. Another opportunity to demonstrate the dominance of the immaterial spirit over the merely material realm in which the liberally educated soul happens to dwell in his own peculiar time.

Peculiar times indeed! But for the liberally educated soul, one time is much like another. He who has immersed himself in the immemorial, has soaked his soul in the eternal, has winded his way over the the wine dark sea, has traversed the transcendent and timeless truths….for such a one, I say, one time is much like another.

What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done.

Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us.

Nonetheless, for the soul that has “traversed the timeless,” it can be something of a jolt to descend …down to the very lowest levels of being. To descend to elemental things that are seemingly furthest removed from the realm of the immaterial. To brick and stone and sand and dirt!

But ahhh! Nothing fortifies the soaring soul so much as to regain its ground, so to speak, in its own humble origins. For me summer is sort of like an extended Ash Wednesday.

Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris!

And so my summer began with brick pavers.

Fortunately my philosopher son-in-law, who also appreciates such things, did all the planning and heavy lifting and digging. He began the project and provided the all-important proper sandy stony base. He also provided the initial enthusiasm without which I never would have made the attempt.

I can’t help but to think of the many enterprises great and small, noble and heroic, or mundane and humble that were never accomplished. Why? Well… simply for lack of the initial enthusiasm that set them in motion. I increasingly find that the largest obstacle in fulfilling my home improvement ambitions is merely in making a start. A man needs friends to get going!

Two going together’-for with friends men are more able both to think and to act,

Anyone who has worked with pavers knows that it is the unseen and unappreciated base- the ground-work, that ensures a successful job! The initial planning, digging, spade-work…the careful sloping and leveling required to encourage proper runoff, the establishment of rocks and pebbles upon which to pour the sand…all of these things are the foundation of a proper paver program.

Of course, the same goes for the formation and education of the soul! I sometimes resent those college and university professors who don’t realize, as they gloat over their successful students, that they are simply reaping the fruit of the seeds sewn by that student’s teachers in primary and secondary school- the unseen ground-work in education, the reading of Beowulf and A Tale of two Cities, the memorization of Latin and Greek vocabulary, the recitation of Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade,

singing Gaudeamus Igitur, the British Grenadiers…all ground-work for reading Aristotle’s Metaphysics and St Thomas Treatise on the Trinity!

Back to those pavers.

Now after all that foundation work the job is relatively simple. It becomes simply a matter of setting the pavers in an appropriate pattern. Take my advice- just stick with the tried and true ‘herringbone’ pattern. Although once again I was indebted to my daughter and son- in- law for starting it out. I have taught Geometry for years but I struggled to understand it.

Show me the right path, O Lord;point out the road for me to follow.Lead me by your truth and teach me,

Although undoubtedly he was contemplating a much more profound path! Nonetheless, I would still think that the soul benefits from the raw experience of piecing together a path of pavers.

Once I discovered that my circular saw, equipped with an eight inch carbide blade, would cut right through those pavers the job became much easier. My son then washed all of the dust and debris away so that we could apply the final coat of sand between the pavers.

Now it is done and looks like it has been there forever.

Meanwhile, my fence has been (and still is) falling to pieces. Finally the door fell off. This was a much simpler project since I had the remnants of the old fence and could simply follow the same design- and even reuse some of the same lumber.

It makes one wonder whether one has done any work at all since it seems to be the same door. It has the same form, and practically the same matter. Is it the same door? What about the human body? Doesn’t every cell replace itself after a matter of seven of so years? But we still maintain that we have the same bodies that we had when we were children, do we not?

The difficult thing was to dig out the old concrete footer for the post. Digging the concrete out of the ground took a whole day. Renovation always requires a prior destruction. I seriously considered not pouring a new one after extensive research. But finally opted for one of these new “Quikrete tubes.”

Meanwhile, our two rabbits, Benjamin and Socks, were not getting along. It was time for Socks to move out and so the next item on our summer project list was a new bunny hutch. “Even the sparrow has found a home.” But I think our Mini-Rexes missed the memo on that.

My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.

For the sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones: Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.

I suppose domestic rabbits know all to well that they will be taken care of. Fortunately I had the lumber from parts of the fence and an old picnic table that collapsed……

…….as well as some nice oaken pallets that served well for the doors.

Now Benjamin and Socks live separately, but at least they can stare at each other when they want to.

I have never replaced a double pane picture window before. But the one in my living became intolerably cloudy and misty for the last several years. Finally, we took it out and replaced it with this plastic painting sheet from Home Depot. I enjoyed the plastic sheet more than the misty window- actually the visibility was almost identical, but the plastic sheet gave me a better sense of what the weather was outside.

A week later, and with help from the professionals over at Supreme Windows, I was able to order a replacement pane and install it in a mere matter of minutes. This was a far easier task than I had expected. Just a matter of caulking neatly around the whole thing with a high quality clear silicone.

When I was in high school my family formed a friendship with the late spiritual author Dom Hubert Van Zeller. Perhaps in my next post I will write something about my own brief acquaintance with Dom Hubert during the last year of his life, but, relevant to my present point, I do remember one day when he visited our home in Massachusetts and my mother took considerable pains to wash the windows. She said “Fr. Van Zeller loves clean windows”

`

I immediately suspected that Dom Hubert must have seen the obvious spiritual parallel between clean windows and a pure soul. I thought that perhaps Van Zeller was thinking that the soul should be so clean that nothing in it obstructs the light of God’s grace.

Of course there was always the possibility that he just liked clean windows. He also loved old movies and I don’t really see any spiritual significance in that.

Now I confess that I am a bit reluctant to enter upon the next subject. But let us take it as a further opportunity to demonstrate that liberal education does not only deal with the lofty and sublime, but also extends to the humble and mundane. I suppose we need to be reminded that the liberally educated soul while his chief interest and aspirations lie in an upward direction, he nonetheless does not shirk the lessons to be gained from lower matters. Indeed Aristotle himself comments on this when he says,

Having already treated of the celestial world, as far as our conjectures could reach, we proceed to treat of animals, without omitting, to the best of our ability, any member of the kingdom, however ignoble. For if some have no graces to charm the sense, yet even these, by disclosing to intellectual perception the artistic spirit that designed them, give immense pleasure to all who can trace links of causation, and are inclined to philosophy.

Isn’t that great?! And so it is not beneath us to turn our mind to some of the lower matters with respect to home renovation! Even though Aristotle is talking specifically about the humbler animals (I am thinking some of the ugliest), it is clear to me that Heraclitus’ reference to the kitchen makes this whole passage equally applicable to home renovation!

We therefore must not recoil with childish aversion from the examination of the humbler animals. Every realm of nature is marvelous: and as Heraclitus, when the strangers who came to visit him found him warming himself at the furnace in the kitchen and hesitated to go in, reported to have bidden them not to be afraid to enter, as even in that kitchen divinities were present, so we should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful.

I think this last passage provides us with the perfect segue into the final and humblest of my summer projects- the first floor under-the-staircase bathroom renovation!

It occurred to me that the time had come to replace the floor in our first floor bathroom. As you may see, despite various tile projects on the second floor of the home, the first floor lavatory still retained the vinyl floor and base molding that was original to the home when we moved in. It can be a little difficult engaging in a project for such a small room. After all, what does it really matter whether an under the stairs 24 foot closet has a vinyl floor or not?

Well, naturally, after I pulled the sink out and other plumbing fixtures common to such areas, I immediately found myself attending to the plumbing in the basement. Descendimus ad inferos!

There were no working water-feed shut off valves! The old valves had simply rusted and it was useless to work with them any further. And so after shutting down water to the whole house my son Peter and I replaced the copper pipes under the bathroom with some shiny new fixtures. We first cut out the old stuff and after equipping ourselves with some new solder, solder paste, pipe cleaners, new copper and a propane torch we went to work.

As I have already mentioned, it makes all the difference to have two professionals working together. “Two going together” as Aristotle says.

Remind me to separate those copper pipes. They really should not be touching. A good plumber would probably have made those connections much cleaner. I had trouble with this one because I could not get all the water out of the pipe. It kept dripping- and everyone knows one just can’t solder a copper pipe with water in it!

Finally it was time to put down the cement board over the plywood sub-floor. My old Milwaukee corded drill is a good friend.

Had to replace the old lead soil pipe with some new PVC. Heraclitus was so right that fire is at the heart of everything (or is it water?).

Peter spread the netting between the joints of the cement board.

And helped me to cut the tile for a “dry fit”!

This little marble threshold gave me some trouble. But finally it went in and seemed like a natural fit with the hexagonal marble tile.

We opted for some dark gray grout. Anyone who has attempted to clean lighter grout will understand. Still it seemed such a shame to spread this stuff over my nice new white marble tiles.

After a little clean up.

And now everything needs a fresh coat of paint. So much for simply replacing the floor. But isn’t that always the case? One thinks “well I can just do this one thing” or, “I can just adjust this or that” and “it shouldn’t be difficult!” But then the matter turns out quite differently and one realizes that adjusting one thing involves adjusting and replacing a host of other things that were never originally imagined.

I suppose there is some parallel with the formation of the mind and the soul here. Genuine learning very often requires something very similar. No wonder learning can be so painful!

]]>https://lionandox.com/2018/08/04/what-teachers-do-during-the-summer/feed/4marklangleyImage result for nothing new under the sun20180605_11473820180605_114745Image result for tennyson light brigadeImage result for herringbone20180605_185530.jpg20180528_10591820180629_19241420180706_201055Image result for concrete post tubes20180706_18262420180710_09024720180706_20411920180804_122010Image result for dom hubert van zeller20180717_12401820180719_13315120180719_13314020180719_12415820180719_153933.jpg20180719_183245.jpg20180719_18360820180725_11070920180720_11383220180720_17013620180723_18301320180723_18300220180804_12233720180804_122225The Most Important Virtues That No One Talks About.https://lionandox.com/2018/06/29/the-most-important-virtues-that-no-one-talks-about/
https://lionandox.com/2018/06/29/the-most-important-virtues-that-no-one-talks-about/#commentsFri, 29 Jun 2018 04:19:23 +0000http://lionandox.com/?p=15144Continue reading →]]>Sometimes I wonder if the stories that we have all heard concerning saints who did not appear to be intellectually gifted might mislead many people into thinking that sanctity does not require any special focus on the development of the mind.

For example, how many Catholics out there might think something like the following:

Well, education is very important, but, thankfully, it is not required for sanctity. I mean, look at me, I was a below average Geometry student and I seem to be OK. Or take dear Saint Bernadette. She was a poor learner and could barely read and write. Yet what a marvelous saint!

Perhaps someone hoping to rationalize his choice way back in high school to study Spanish instead of Latin, or Graphic Design instead of Great Books, might say,

Look at those simple fishermen that Our Lord used to build His Church. The brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree? No sir! The sharpest knives in the drawer? I don’t think so! But did they have faith? Yes they did. And that is what is important!

How many Catholics have appealed to Saint Joan of Arc and Saint Joseph Cupertino to argue that the development of the intellectual virtues is not of prime importance? They might say,

Thank goodness that holiness does not depend on being smart! Good-ole Saint Joseph Cupertino knew that. He was so ignorant that even the Franciscans turned him away! But did that stop him from levitating? Did that stop him from bringing many others into Christ’s fold? No!

Another might assert that while the study of Latin and Ancient Greek is laudable for those who might be attracted to these historical and obsolete intellectual artifacts, the serious pursuit of these dead languages is, nonetheless, not really incumbent upon the ordinary Christian. To exemplify his position, he might say,

Take good St Joan, for heaven’s sake! She was the illiterate daughter of a farmer. She was a mere uneducated peasant. Did she know Latin? No! Did she know Greek! No! And yet did this stop her from becoming the heroine of France and one of the greatest among the pantheon of canonized saints! No!

I have a suspicion that the relative scarcity of good Catholics that choose to send their children to schools which are devoted to Catholic liberal education has something to do with this. That is to say, that for most Catholics, liberal education is something of a superfluity, an extra, and given the time and expense of obtaining one, it is easily dismissed as being non essential for the formation of virtue. Liberal education is a privilege only for those who have the time and inclination.

In other words, I wonder if many Catholics think about sanctity as having not much to do with a person’s intellectual life, but rather with his moral life? This unspoken and, I hesitate to say, even anti-intellectual philosophy would go far to explain why Catholic liberal education is not a primary concern for many Catholics.

I could be wrong, but at least this theory has substantial explaining power for why the majority of Catholics, perhaps unwittingly, avoid demanding that their children be formed in intellectual virtue (which is the defining feature of a liberal education).

But isn’t each person called to holiness? And doesn’t this call to holiness mean being called to be like Christ? Are we not all called to be ‘another Christ’? Christ, however, had all of the human virtues. Therefore, in order to be like Him, in a way that respects our nature, we must try to at least have all of the human virtues.

What precisely were the kinds of human virtues that Christ had? St. Thomas provides an accessible answer to this question,

Human virtue is a habit perfecting man in view of his doing good deeds. Now, in man there are but two principles of human actions, viz. the intellect or reason and the appetite: for these are the two principles of movement in man… Consequently every human virtue must needs be a perfection of one of these principles. Accordingly if it perfects man’s speculative or practical intellect in order that his deed may be good, it will be an intellectual virtue: whereas if it perfects his appetite, it will be a moral virtue. It follows therefore that every human virtue is either intellectual or moral.

In other words, there are precisely two kinds of human virtue: intellectual and moral. Therefore if Christ had all virtue then he too obviously possessed both moral and intellectual virtue. Q.E.D.

So what are the moral virtues? Simply put, they are all the virtues contained under the four general cardinal virtues: prudence justice, temperance and fortitude. ‘Cardinal’ of course comes from the latin word ‘cardo, cardinis’ which means hinge.

The cardinal virtues might be thought of as the four hinges upon which the entire gate of moral virtue hangs, or rather, each cardinal virtue appears to be the genus of many subsidiary virtues (which, I suppose, are thought of as hanging upon the cardinal virtues.) For example, the virtues of chastity and sobriety hang on the virtue of temperance; they are forms of temperance.

The intellectual virtues, on the other hand are five in number: the two practical intellectual virtues art and prudence. And the three speculative intellectual virtues Natural Understanding, Science and Wisdom.

Now if man is distinguished from everything else in the world by his reason, wouldn’t it make sense that the acts of reason are distinctively human? And remember, virtue is, broadly speaking, nothing more than a quality of a thing which makes it excellent in its own act.

A virtue is an excellence of the thing. So for example if one were to take a knife, we might ask,

What is it that makes a knife excellent? What is the virtue of a knife?

We might ask ourselves,

What is it that makes a knife excellent? What is a knife supposed to do?

to which the obvious and spontaneous reply is,

A knife is supposed to cut. And it is sharpness that allows a knife to cut well.

Voila! we have the virtue of a knife. Sharpness allows a knife to perform its own act well and therefore sharpness is the virtue of a knife.

And now we ask ourselves what is it that makes a human being excellent? What is it that enables a human being to perform his own act, his distinctive act, well?

Now all of the virtues enable the person to perform his actions well. But it is the intellectual virtues, most especially the three speculative intellectual virtues, that enable a person to perform his distinctively human act well.

And so we might say with special enthusiasm that of all the virtues, understanding, science and wisdom should be held in highest esteem because these virtues are especially related to the human person in the performance of his own distinctively human act; the intellectual virtues appear to hold a chief position among human virtues.

Now, my dear reader, ask yourself: why doesn’t anyone ever talk about these virtues if they are so important?

And further, what precisely are these virtues?

If these are the chief human virtues oughtn’t we to know what they are? How can we develop them in ourselves if we do not even know what they are and how they are distinguished from one another?

Well, I suppose we could try to give an unsatisfactory answer in a nut shell. But we might ask ourselves why Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote extensively about the virtues well into his Summa (e.g. see Prima Secundae questions 49-67).

Perhaps to understand the virtues requires a lengthy discussion. And who has time for that?!

Yet, surely we would like our children to know what virtue is and what are the chief human virtues. Maybe one day they will also even develop these virtues!

Perhaps we need to provide our children with a genuine Catholic liberal education?

]]>https://lionandox.com/2018/06/29/the-most-important-virtues-that-no-one-talks-about/feed/5marklangleyBernadette Soubirous.jpgRelated imageSan Giuseppe da Copertino si eleva in volo alla vista della Basilica di Loreto.jpgImage result for christ leonardo da vinciImage result for q.e.d.Image result for cardinalImage result for hinge beautiful medievalImage result for the thinker clevelandImage result for knifeImage result for what is a man if his chiefClassical Catholic Education and Sacred Music!https://lionandox.com/2018/05/01/classical-catholic-education-and-sacred-music/
https://lionandox.com/2018/05/01/classical-catholic-education-and-sacred-music/#commentsTue, 01 May 2018 18:43:17 +0000http://lionandox.com/?p=15123Continue reading →]]>The Catholic classical school is the proper place for the formation of students in sacred music. Every student should sing. Every student can sing. No exceptions. The Church depends on it.

Lyceum students demonstrated the truth of this once again!

(The students sang from the prelude during the vesting ceremony from about 5:00-19:00)

Although these photos are all brand new, they are, nonetheless, the same in their essential content.

And isn’t this just what Easter is all about? Isn’t Easter all about celebrating Christ’s Resurrection every year in precisely the same way?

I think this answer should be pleasing, especially to all of the stodgy conservatives out there among the lionandox.com readership.

I mean, when you went to the Easter Vigil were you expecting to see something new?

Or were you, rather, hoping to see all of those same old dear traditions that you remembered from years past?

As a parish music director, I, of course, get an expansive loft-view of the relatively massive Easter Sunday turnout, which is a well-known Catholic phenomenon. Churches are packed on Christmas and Easter.

One remarks to oneself,

“Wow, I had no idea that there were so many people in this parish!’

And then one is struck with the simultaneous realization that,

“Yes, everyone has come back to celebrate Easter and they all expect to see something very similar to the celebration that they saw last year, and the year before that, and hopefully even something similar to the Easter celebrations in the golden memories of their own childhood!”

Ever ancient, ever new!

After the Sacred Triduum (which seems to be evolving into the Sacred Quadruum for those parishes which are adding Tenebrae Services on “Spy Wednesday”) we celebrated Easter Brunch at 1:30 pm!

I really don’t mind that parishes are celebrating their vigil Masses a little earlier these days. This sort of thing used to annoy me-I admit it. I used to be a staunch defender of the 11:30 pm Easter Vigil start time. But for those of us who have to attend three more Easter Masses the next morning, a 7:30 PM vigil does have an appeal.

We mixed our Proseco with some cold orange juice.

Easter is also about Hollandaise Sauce on a bed of asparagus!

I have to say these sticky cinnamon rolls were scrumptious. Stephanie baked them just right. Chewy, soft and buttery. I think she followed a Paula Deen recipe.

Five hours later, after a nap and a three-mile walk, we tucked into Easter dinner. This year we took the Spiral-Sliced Ham option. Together with scalloped potatoes and a buttery roasted multi- colored carrot medley, the day was complete.

It’s always tough for me to know just what to pair with ham. I chose a 2016 Mark West Pinot Noir and a bottle of 2015 Franciscan Estate Chardonnay from Napa Valley. We enjoyed both! I am not so sure that I am ready to defend the ham and Pinot pairing, nonetheless I did enjoy the Mark West (especially for the modest price – although at the very top of my wine budget).

Where charity and love are, there is God. The love of Christ has gathered us into one. Let us exult, and let us take delight in Him. Let us fear and let us love the living God. Let us love out of a sincere heart.

This of course is only the first verse. But it is beautiful! And totally appropriate for today’s feast!

Apparently this chant was composed sometime between the fourth century and the twelfth century. Now how is that for historical precision?

What began as a Gregorian chant that some music scholars believe originated before the formation of the Catholic Mass, “Ubi Caritas” (“Where Charity Is”) has evolved into many iterations and compositions. The actual origin of the chant is unknown and ambiguous, although musicologists and researchers believe it was written between 300 and 1100 CE

I am not sure what Mr. Green means by “before the formation of the Catholic Mass,” given that Our Lord formed and instituted the “Catholic Mass” on the Thursday before he died.

47. At the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity [36], a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us [37].

Nonetheless, when I open my Liber Usualis (“The Usual Book” which contains all the normative and usual Gregorian chant that anyone would ever need- except of course in unusual times and circumstances!)

I find Ubi Caritas, on page 664, as the last antiphon offered to be sung during the washing of the feet ritual. There appear to be at least nine (yes, count’em, nine!) different antiphons that can be sung during this ceremony.

Now it seems ambiguous to me (are we really supposed to sing them all?), but the instructions in my Liber says,

After the Gospel, whilst the Priest performs the ceremony of the washing of the feet, the following chants are sung.

I have always admired the choir that can sing all nine antiphons before the priest washes twelve feet. Perhaps this is an indication of how much time the priest should spend washing each foot. Or, speaking as a choirmaster with nine antiphons and psalm versicles to sing, maybe there should be mandatory policy that requires washing both feet! With twenty-four feet to be washed, I think we could squeeze in all those antiphons and maybe even repeat a couple.

Who composed the prayer? Who composed the music? When precisely was it composed?

Although Ubi Caritas is certainly among the most beautiful hymns in the chant repertoire, this side of heaven we will never know the answers.